UN call fails to stop Gaza bombing

09/01/2009| IslamWeb

A series of explosions has rocked the Gaza Strip despite the UN Security Council passing a resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire" there.

 

Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad, reporting from the Israel-Gaza border, said air raids, tank shelling and gunfire had continued in the early hours of Friday, moments after the resolution had passed.

 

About half a dozen explosions were heard in Gaza as council members at the UN building in New York were extolling the virtues of the resolution that came after days of diplomatic wrangling.

 

And there was no sign that either Israel would stop its offensive in the Palestinian territory – now in its 14th day - or Hamas would stop its rocket attacks.

 

The Israeli military said air raids hit 50 targets in Gaza overnight.

 

Amid the continuing assault, six more Palestinians, including one baby, were killed in an Israeli air raid in the northern part of the Gaza Strip early on Friday.

 

Three more Palestinians were killed in shelling in central Gaza, raising the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 776, including more than 200 children, since the Israeli offensive began on December 27.

 

More than 3,250 people have also been wounded.

 

The dire humanitarian situation was not improving, our correspondent added, saying that aid agencies had made it clear that they could not act unless Israel provided them better security.

 

On Thursday, the United Nations suspended its aid operations in the Gaza Strip in the wake of a series of Israeli attacks on its personnel and buildings.

 

"Unrwa decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel," Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said on Thursday.

 

The move came after Israeli tanks shelled a UN convoy earlier in the day, killing a Palestinian UN worker and injuring two others, as lorries were traveling to the Erez crossing to pick up humanitarian supplies meant to have been allowed in during a three-hour suspension of fire.

 

At least three UN-run schools have also been hit by Israeli fire, killing scores of civilians, during the 13 days of Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

 

John Ging, the head of Unrwa in Gaza, said the casualties in Thursday's convoy attack were Palestinian civilian contractors hired to bring supplies from the crossing points.

 

"They were coordinating their movements with the Israelis, as they always do, only to find themselves being fired at from the ground troops," he told Al Jazeera.

 

"We've lost confidence. We have been reassured continuously over the last number of days that these incidents will not reoccur, and I have taken that in good faith because of the humanitarian imperative.

 

"We want to believe we are safe here ... but the bottom line is that I've lost confidence in the Israeli side and that needs to be restored urgently, and it is their duty to restore this confidence," Ging said.

 

All convoys to Erez and the Kerem Shalom, which has been the main crossing point used for bringing humanitarian supplies into Gaza, were suspended after the incident.

 

Rafah bombing

 

Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip as Israeli forces bombarded Rafah earlier on Thursday.

 

Homes, a mosque and tunnels were hit in the area along the Egyptian border, witnesses said.

 

The Israeli military had dropped leaflets beforehand, warning it would "bomb the area due to its use by terrorists to [dig] tunnels and to stock up [on weapons]".

 

Hundreds of tunnels are believed to cross under the Egyptian border around Rafah allowing Palestinians to smuggle in daily necessities - in short supply due to the Israeli blockade.

 

Besieged Gazans

 

But Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said the Israel had in effect cut the Gaza Strip in two and those in the southern part would not be able to go to the north seeking refuge and vice versa.

 

It was unclear if the latest offensive was the "third stage" of the offensive approved by the Israeli security cabinet on Wednesday.

 

A senior Israeli defense official said a meeting chaired by Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, had "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas".

 

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday accused the Israeli military of not helping wounded Palestinians in an incident in Gaza City that it described as "shocking".

 

ICRC and Palestinian Red Crescent workers said in a statement that several wounded Palestinians and four weakened children were found alongside 12 dead bodies in houses hit by shelling in Zaytun, less than 100 meters from Israeli positions.

 

"The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded," it said.

 

The Red Cross team, including four ambulances, had only gained safe passage from Israeli army to access the neighborhood on January 7 after trying for four days, the ICRC said.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Palestinian children who according to Palestinian medical sources were killed in an Israeli strike are seen at the morgue of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.

 

Al-Jazeera